The country’s headline inflation saw a slight uptick in April 2024, according to a report by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) released on May 7, 2024.
The said increase brings the cumulative inflation rate to 3.4% for January to April 2024, much lower than April 2023 at 6.6%.
Factors Driving the Increase
The surge in overall inflation in April is propelled by a notable year-on-year increase in essential commodities like food and non-alcoholic beverages, rising to 6.0% from 5.6% in March of the same year.
Additionally, the transport index reported in April showed an increased year-to-year growth to 2.6%, much higher than 2.1% in the previous month.
Top 3 Contributors to Headline Inflation
- Food and Non-alcoholic Beverages: 59.7% share or 2.3 percentage points
- Restaurants and accommodation services: 3.7% share or 0.5 percentage points
- Transport sector: 6.2% share or 0.2 percentage points
Furthermore, the information and communication sector also saw an inflation rate increase of 0.5%, higher than that of March at 0.4%.
Lower Inflation Rates
Moreover, despite the increase in the headline inflation rate, these commodities have been observed to decrease:
- Alcoholic beverages and tobacco dropped to 4.9% from 6.7%
- Housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels decreased to 0.4% from 0.5%
- Furnishings, household equipment, and routine household maintenance fell to 3.1% from 3.2%
- Health sector saw a decline to 3.0% from 3.2%
- Recreation, sport, and culture decreased to 3.8% from 3.9%
- Restaurants and accommodation services also experienced a dip to 5.4% from 5.6%
- Personal care and miscellaneous goods and services decreased to 3.5% from 3.6% (ASC)
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